Counteracting Educational Injustice with Applied Critical Leadership: Culturally Responsive Practices Promoting Sustainable Change

Abstract

This contribution considers educational leadership practice to promote and sustain diversity. Comparative case studies are presented featuring educational leaders in the United States and New Zealand who counter injustice in their practice. The leaders' leadership practices responsive to the diversity presented in their schools offer reconceptualizations of educational leadership for a changing society. Applied critical leaders are defined through similarities and differences, followed by suggestions for critical leadership promoting social justice and educational equity and culturally responsive practices to inform policy and practice for sustainable future-focused educational leadership.

Visionary Leadership of Principals in Increasing School Quality at SMKN 1 Sambas

“…Komariah and Triatna (2016: 82) say that visionary leadership is the ability of leaders to create, formulate, communicate/socialize/ transform, and implement ideal thoughts that originate from themselves or as a result of social interactions among organizational members and stakeholders who are believed as the aspirations of the organization in the future that must be achieved or realized through the commitment of all personnel. Besides, visionary leadership will prepare students to face the challenges in the 21st century (Santamaría & Santamaría, 2015).…”

Transition Trends Associated with Topic Focus Since 1990: A Literature Review

“…Otherwise, educators will be forced to retrofit supports and services shown to be effective with a subset of the population to students that remain outside of that subset. Such narrowly focused research can inadvertently lead to curricula, teacher preparation, and transition planning that may not be culturally relevant, which could potentially reproduce patterns of institutional racism by neglecting the unique needs of students and cultures that are not present in the literature (Santamaría & Santamaría, 2015). Therefore, researchers need to include diverse participants as well as consistently report demographics to assist readers when applying the findings to their own students.…”

Critical Development of Courage Within Social Justice School Leaders: Silence, Tempered Radicals, and Revolutionaries

“…Scholars conceptualize the paradigms for such leadership differently based on which essential aspects they emphasize. Various terms include social justice leadership (Bogotch & Reyes-Guerra, 2014;Furman, 2012;Theoharis, 2007b), culturally responsive leadership (Khalifa, Gooden, & Davis, 2016), culturally relevant leadership (Fraise & Brooks, 2015;Horsford, Grosland, & Gunn, 2011), culturally proficient leadership (Terrell, Terrell, Lindsey, & Lindsey, 2018), transformative leadership (Shields, 2010), and applied critical leadership (Santamaría & Santamaría, 2015). A common dimension among these paradigms is leaders' commitment to dismantling inequitable systems and engaging in advocacy that creates access to schooling that is responsive to the needs of "minoritized students" (Khalifa et al, p. 1272).…”